Building Resilience of Deir-Ez-Zor Vulnerable Communities through Ensuring them with Sustainable Livelihood Opportunities

Reference: UNDP-SYR-RPA-078R-20

Beneficiary country(ies): Syrian Arab Republic

Registration level: Basic

Published on: 09-Nov-2020

Deadline on: 16-Nov-2020 15:00 (GMT 3.00) Baghdad, Riyadh, Moscow, St. Petersburg

Background

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), as two leading organizations in (ERL & FSA) clusters, announce a call for proposals open for NGOs, FBOs, INGOs members of the 2 clusters. The call proposal aims to rapidly address the most critical emergency response needs for the people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Deir-Ez-Zor governorate.

The Grant fund will be operated under the leadership of UNDP country office, in line with the HRP objectives, and in accordance with priorities identified by the ERL&FSA sectors. FAO will provide technical support under the agriculture-based livelihoods component of this call, being the leading agency in the FSA sector.

The intervention has a lifespan of 12 months covering Deir-Ez-Zor governorate, identified and selected based on the needs to support livelihood opportunities in this area, its accessibility, the relevance of the planned interventions, capitalizing on earlier interventions in supporting agriculture and market access through food processing, and further support to women associations, as well as on other interventions supporting sustainable livelihoods creation beyond the agricultural scope.

The proposed action aims to contribute to building resilience through the establishment of sustainable agriculture, food and nutrition processes and other sustainable non-agricultural livelihoods opportunities in Deir-Ez-Zor of 2600 crisis-affected farmer households (of whom at least 600 are women- headed households) based on the following key components:

1. Assess market for appropriate and market-driven livelihood opportunities
2. Design a comprehensive plan for agriculture related livelihood opportunities including marketing plans
3. Support food production including sustainable vegetable production, provision of processing equipment and marketing
4. Support women associations with capacity building on both technical (food safety and quality) and business management and marketing
5. Support Cash for work linked to rehabilitation activities

Opportunity Structure

Project Objectives:

The objective of this Call for Proposals is to “Contribute building resilience in Deir-Er-Zor through the establishment of sustainable agriculture, and non-agriculture livelihoods opportunities”.

Sectors maximum budgets under this call for proposals are as follows:

ERL sector maximum budget: 500,000 USD

FSA sector maximum budget: 500,000 USD

Applied organizations can apply under one or both sectors

ERL Sectoral Objective: Improve access to basic and social services and infrastructure and strengthen access to livelihoods by creating income-generating opportunities and by improving access to production and market infrastructure to restore local economy recovery.

ERL Eligible Activities:

Activity 1.1: Provide market-based modalities of assistance to vulnerable households

Indicator: # of vulnerable households including female-headed households, elderly, etc. provided through market-based modalities of assistance

Activity 1.2: Create short-term work opportunities

Indicator: # of short-term work opportunities created including through market-based modalities

Activity 1.3: Foster access to regular employment

Indicator: # of people obtaining or accessing regular employment, as a result of sector support

Activity 1.4: Support to entrepreneurship

Indicator: # of people supported to rehabilitate, develop or start a social or business entrepreneurship initiative

Activity 1.5: Restore access to basic, local economic infrastructure through light rehabilitation and repair

Indicator: # of local economic infrastructures rehabilitated, including markets; storage, warehousing and processing

Activity 1.6: Restore access to basic utilities, such as electricity, gas, water, sewage through light rehabilitation and repair

Indicator: # of households provided with access to one or more basic utilities such as electricity, gas, water, sewage

Priority target group: The proposed response aims to address the needs of crisis-affected farmer households especially women- headed households.

Recommended locations are primarily based on the level of severity of the indicators related to the above-mentioned activities, the most affected areas were selected.. The other consideration for location selection was the accessibility and safety and security of the partners. The proposed list of areas meeting the above-mentioned criteria is as follows;

Competitive Scope

Required Qualifications and Selection Criteria:

Limitations:

• This Call for Proposal is open to national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Faith based Organizations (FBOs) that are entitled to work in Deir-Ez-Zor Governorate.
• Applying organizations should be considered as an approved partner in one of the (ERL or FSA) sectors
• Organizations with a minimum experience of 3 years, in the field of agriculture and livelihood; in particular women empowerment through economic development, small food production businesses, supporting existing/new businesses and experience with Cash programming (e.g. CfW)
• Organizations must have proven experience of implementing successful project(s) with the United Nations.

proposed projects will be reviewed and marked based on the following criteria:

• Full acceptance and compliance with the UN humanitarian principles and values, and actively involved in coordination mechanisms.
• Have physical training competence, as per UN organizations preferences and standards, in terms of experience; facilities and team of trainers qualified across the technical topics mentioned in the training programme of the project,
• physical presence in Der al Zor with the ability to operate in the targeted areas.
• Financially liable,
• The ability to implement activities within the precautions and safety measures necessary to counteract the risk of infection by COVID-19 in accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organization

Qualification and experience of assigned key personnel:

The applying organization should provide Curriculum Vitae (CVs) of the following minimum Personnel:

• At least one site engineer (agronomist) is required to manage and implement the project with at least 5 years experience in producing vegetables and orchards,
• At least one specialist (Poultry or livestock) is required to support and implement Poultry and livestock activities in the project with at least 5 years experience in this field.
• At least one specialist (a food industry engineer with experience in food safety standards) is required to support and implement food processing activities in the project with at least 5 years experience in this field.
• At least one specialist (Business and Marketing Management) is required to support marketing activities and market access with a minimum of 5 years experience in this field.

Priority will be given to projects that meet, amongst others, the following additional criteria:

• Vulnerability of the targeted IDP or resident/returnee’s population
• The project is multi-sectoral (two sectors are involved in a coordinated manner; all activities and budgets should be clearly broken down between activities relevant to each sector and the multi-sectoral activities have a clear added value to responding to needs more effectively;
• The project mainstreams gender into its activities
• The project mainstreams protection into its activities
• The project sets out clear Accountability to Affected Populations mechanisms
• Participation of the partner in coordination mechanisms
• Projects with clear plan on conceptualisation, implementation and monitoring of the suggested intervention to guarantee sustainability.

Project Budget, Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule

The ERL sector mobilizes resources to humanitarian partners to rapidly address the most critical emergency response needs for the people affected by the humanitarian crisis in Deir-ez-Zor governorate.

The Grant fund will be operated under the leadership of UNDP country office, in line with the HRP objectives, and in accordance with priorities identified by the ERL&FSA sectors.

The total allocated budget for the project is fixed at $1,000,000; of this, $500,000 is allocated under the ERL sector, and 500,000 $ under the FSA sector.

Eligible grant size will be disbursed in tranches on the basis of project duration, partner capacity, risk levels, and the proposed activities. UNDP can request project revisions and/or budget deduction based on the proposed activities. *proposal above the maximum budget would be automatically rejected.

Maximum Financial and Administrative fees shall not exceed 7% of the project budget

The Contracted Sector partners (INGOs, NNGOs and FBOs) will submit an inception report for UNDP’s approval within 15 days from signing the Responsible Party Agreement.

Estimated Budget shall be submitted in accordance with the Itemized Cost Estimates (Annex D)

General instructions for proposal submission

• The estimated project duration is 12 months,
• To be commenced not later than the 1^st of December 2020
• The Responsible party shall secure all needed official approvals before the above set date.

The following documents are required to be submitted by the deadline:

• Project Proposal as per Annex B
• Project Budget as per Annex C
• Itemized Cost estimate as per Annex D
• CVs of the requested key staff listed in the TOR
• List of Previously implemented projects (including: project title – Location – UN Agency– Total Budget – Starting & Ending Date – reference contact)